“Only once, but the fight is not yet over with him.”
“Was he—an Englishman?”
David inclined his head. “It’s a great thing to have a temptation to fight, Soolsby. Then we can understand others.”
“It’s not always true, Egyptian, for you have never had temptation to fight. Yet you know it all.”
“God has been good to me,” David answered, putting a hand on the old man’s shoulder. “And thee is a credit to Hamley, friend. Thee will never fall again.”
“You know that—you say that to me! Then, by Mary the mother of God, I never will be a swine again,” he said, getting to his feet.
“Well, good-bye, Soolsby. I go to-morrow,” David said presently.
Soolsby frowned; his lips worked. “When will you come back?” he asked eagerly.
David smiled. “There is so much to do, they may not let me come—not soon. I am going into the desert again.”
Soolsby was shaking. He spoke huskily. “Here is your place,” he said. “You shall come back—Oh, but you shall come back, here, where you belong.”